There are many situations in which a person needs to cover a portion of his or her body to prevent contact with another object or to prevent the spread of germs or disease. A prime example of such a situation is a health care provider, such as a surgeon, covering his or her hands with surgical gloves during a medical procedure. Such health care professionals generally change their gloves several times a day, and may (as will be discussed below) change their gloves several times during a single procedure.
Any breach in a body covering element, such as surgical gloves, used to prevent contact between a workpiece, such as a patient, and the worker, such as a health care provider, is highly undesirable, and may even be dangerous to the patient and to the health care provider. It has been found that protective garments such as surgical gloves often breach during an operation. A breach is any defect in the garment that exposes the wearer to contact, no matter how slight, with the workpiece. A breach can range from a large, visible rip in the garment to a molecule-size hole. Therefore, in order to protect both the health care provider and the patient, the health care provider should change his or her gloves often. This is especially applicable to surgeons carrying out a surgical procedure. However, it is often an onerous task to change gloves. While this may not be a problem in all situations, there are times when the time spent changing gloves is a severe intrusion on the heath care provider. At such times, the health care provider is tempted to forego changing his or her gloves. Therefore, many surgeons wear their gloves far too long during a single operation. Therefore, there is a need for a means that makes changing protective garments, such as surgical gloves, easy and expeditious for a health care provider.
Still further, if items, such as gloves, are packaged together, it may be difficult to ascertain how many items remain. This may result in a situation where the supply of items runs out and no replacement is readily available. In some situations this is not a major problem; however, in a surgical procedure where time is important, it is highly undesirable. Therefore, there is a need for a container for protective items, such as gloves, that will indicate how many items remain in the container.
In the interest of economy and environment, it is always desireable for items, such as containers, to be amenable to recycling and reuse. Therefore, it is desirable for such a container to be easily and economically manufactured.
It is noted that while the above discussion has focused on surgical gloves, the present invention is applicable to any item, including work gloves, condoms, or the like, that is used to cover a user's body, or a portion of that user's body.
Therefore, there is a need for a means for storing protective garments in a manner that facilitates their expeditious application to a user's body.